French Labor Leaders Exchange Ideas with Texans

Two labor leaders from France sat in on part of the Texas AFL-CIO Legislative
Conference February 12 in Austin. Gilles Rousselet is Secretary General of the
regional union, "CFDTY Languedoc-Roussilon" in the south of France.
Mao Peninou is Mayor of part of Paris. The two met with Texas AFL-CIO Communications
Director Ed Sills and a handful of conference participants in the upstairs library
at the Texas AFL-CIO building on LaVaca Street. Using an interpreter, the french
and Texas labor activists compared their situations.

Rousselet was curious about the fact that American unionists earn far more,
in wages and benefits, than non-union workers. In France, he said, every gain
that the trade unions make is enjoyed by all French workers. This was particularly
astounding when we compared numbers. While America's union density has slipped
below 13%, the french have only about 2 million unionists out of 25 million
workers -- 8%! And yet, French workers have health care and better benefits
than Americans!

Rousselet also said that French unions do not organize an entire bargaining
unit, as we do here. There may be members of several different unions in a single
workplace.
He said that French unions do not participate in politics. This may partially
be explained by the nature of the French legislative system. There, candidates
don't just "win" or "lose" as they do here. Political parties
are assigned a certain number of legislative seats in relation to the percentage
of vote they captured. Consequently, even small parties may have some representation.
Unions are associated with political parties.

Mr Peninou was curious about health care here. He wanted to know if the unions
would change their tactics to win national health care if Hillary Clinton were
elected president in 2008. The whole group talked about the failure of the national
health care plan led by Clinton in 1994.They wanted to know if America's unions
woud change tactics on national health care if Hillary wins presidency. He said
that they had already met with her and that she expressed confidence in winning
national health care if she gets elected. Employer-provided health care was
a mystery to the frenchmen. For them, employers pay taxes, workers pay taxes,
and health care results.